Dumbfounded Realisation
by 3.14159 26535 89793 23846 2643
Summary: I know there are a lot of these out there but i just had to do one myself, its a Warren/Kirsty domestic abuse fanfic! When Kirsty gets severely injured, will the reason be found out or will she go back, and suffer worse than ever?
1. Chapter 1

Kirsty knew what was about to happen, but strangely that didn't make it any better or any worse- it just felt normal, after 15 years of it, it was normal.

Kirsty walked up the steps to her home- she had just finished a 15 hour shift and she was exhausted; she just wanted to go and curl up in bed. But it wasn't as easy as that.

"Warren? Nita?" Kirsty called as the handle she had turned instantly instigated the swinging, opening motion of the door.

"In 'ere" came Warren's gruff, obviously furious voice.

"Hiya , you have a good day?" Kirsty asked ,as upbeat and cheerfully as possible- trying to hide the overwhelming sense of fear she was feeling with a fake smile.

"Why didn't you call me?" Warren spat ,crossly referring to the fact that she was over 20 minutes late and had not even phoned to tell him.

"I, I didn't have time" Kirsty excused; the previously strong, independent woman trembled -unable to hide her fear any longer.

"I was worried" Warren stated, almost emotionless- apart from a hint of anger in his eyes.

"Oh, you shouldn't have love, I was fine" Kirsty said, placing her arm on Warren's hand, trying to calm him but knowing damn well what was coming.

This seemingly insincere act of care tipped Warren over the top, as he moved his hand from under her's ,and grabbed her wrist tightly "Stupid, cheating bitch!" he shouted- tightening his grip.

"Warren, please- no Warren!" Kirsty practically begged – grimacing from the pain coming from her wrist.

"Don't you try to tell me what to do!" he shouted, using his free hand to slap her across the face, with sufficient force to knock her down.

She yelped as she fell, and felt an intense pain in her shoulder as ,due to the fact that Warren had kept hold of her wrist, the force applied to the arm as she fell painfully yanked her arm in the opposite direction to her body. Dislocating her shoulder.

A fierce, merciless beating ensued- Kirsty was silent throughout and she just waited numbly holding her shoulder, hoping it would end.

After a few minutes Warren seemed to tire and stopped, and just stood there- looking down and his sniveling wife, beaming with pride at his handiwork.

"So, you gunna do as I say next time then?"Warren asked Kirsty cockily- like a lion playing with its future meal.

Adrenaline pumping through her veins, and the pain searing through her clouding her judgment. She did the seemingly impossible- Kirsty answered back

"no" she said breathlessly.

"What?" Warren asked, momentarily stunned, this hadn't happened since the early days of their relationship...

"You, you he-heard me" Kirsty replied quietly, unable to believe what she was doing.

"You bitch!" Warren shouted: before grabbing the counter to steady himself and yanking his leg back; before kicking her head with such force that her head snapped back and hit the skirting board behind her with a deafening bang.

Kirsty had felt nothing as she saw his foot coming towards her face -no fear, no anger. Nothing. Then darkness overcame her.


	2. Chapter 2

It had been 7 hours since Kirsty had been brutally attacked and kicked unconscious.

She laid there- limp and pale, on the cold kitchen floor tiling, blood had pooled around the back of her head and she had a bruise, mostly hidden by her hair on her forehead from where his foot had made contact.

She was still unconscious and Warren was worried sick- but not so much about her wellbeing ,more about how much trouble he would be in if she died.

He did feel guilty though, this was the worst he had ever done and he thought she might die. He had stayed up all night watching her, making sure she was breathing. Which she had been, but even he knew she was breathing very shallowly.

About two hours ago he had picked up the phone with the intention of calling an ambulance, after all Nita needed a mum didn't she?

But he hadn't called for one, he let his cowardice take over .Instead he just gripped the phone tightly in his sweaty palm, watching, waiting, hoping for her to come round. It was getting light outside now and he could hear the birds chirping.

It was only then that he realised that she had to be into work in less than 4 hours, and she was in this state- she'd have to have the day off, but that would be difficult seen as she had missed a lot of work recently with unexplained injuries and she had Tess on her back, thinking she was faking ;and Adam was still snooping around...

Well that's if she ever wakes up he thought, looking once again at the phone in his hand, contemplating, planning the story he would tell.

His thoughts were interrupted by a low groan; he looked down and saw that Kirsty was drowsily looking up at him.

"Hey, Kirst you ok?" Warren asked sweetly, acting as though she had just woken up from a deep sleep.

Kirsty looked at him confused. All she could see was a blur and she couldn't even focus on that because of the excruciating, pounding pain in her head.

"Hawwmm" was all she could manage, her throat was all dry and she found it hard to breath.

"I'm glad you're ok love, I was worried" Warren replied as he moved, kneeling down besides her before fondly tussling her hair, acting as though there wasn't a massive bruise there.

"W-wat,h-ap-nd?" she managed, but it took her so long to say it that by the end she already remembered.

"You tripped" Warren said with a shrug, dismissing the question the best he could.

Kirsty's vision had cleared up now and she was back on "planet earth", which was ironic due to her surreal situation .She was aware of where she was and she could remember what happened , but she felt drowsy, nauseous and just ...wrong.


	3. Chapter 3

Then she felt angry, what had he done to her? She felt terrible. Then the nurse in her came to the surface and she began surveying her many injuries.

She felt her wrist throb and moved it to get a better look, but as she did so she felt horrendous pain pulse through her shoulder

"Bugger" she said as she winced and a tear came to her eye.

She tenderly and gingerly touched her shoulder and soon came to the conclusion that it was dislocated, she started to sob as she realised the painful dilemma that she was in. She would have to fix it herself or get somebody else to do it- but then they would know how. She couldn't have that.

Warren stood there, shocked to see this usually strong willed women sob, he had broken her he thought, he had won. With a smile he looked one last time before slowly sneaking off towards the stairs.

Kirsty didn't notice Warren's exit and just held her shoulder and sobbed, after a few minutes she composed herself and she then carried on examining herself, she had severe bruising all over her body, especially on her abdomen- but luckily nothing that she couldn't cover up with cleverly chosen clothes.

Then she got round to her head, which was still pounding. She gently touched her forehead and felt a bump, but luckily it wasn't that visible that she couldn't hide it with her fringe, she then felt the back of her head and straight away she knew it was bad, her hair had formed some sort of crust , matted in with the blood. She could feel a huge gash on the back of her head, and to her horror she could still feel fresh blood coming out; it must be deep, she thought.

It was only then that she thought of asking how long she had been out for; she looked up and saw that Warren had disappeared.

She slowly pulled herself into a more comfortable position, her every move causing her unimaginable pain and distress. She managed to sit up, leaning against the wall.

She was trying to think but it was hard for her to concentrate, she remembered that she had gotten in late about 9.30pm and now it was light, so she guessed it was around 5.00am, meaning she had been out for about 7 and a half hours.

She then thought about what she had been trying to ignore, her medical training,and remembered all about head injuries and how serious they were, she knew that if she had been knocked out for 7 and a half hours then something was wrong, but then she did what she always did, she hid from the truth.

No, it probably didn't knock me out, I probably just got dazed, and... Then I couldn't get up because of the pain, so I just fell asleep here, yes that's what happened I was just asleep, not unconscious -she thought, laughing to herself about what drama queen she had been- using the humor she usually used to keep other people away from the truth on herself.

She sat there for a further 10 minutes before eventually feeling strong enough to try and stand. Shakily she tried to pull herself up, holding on to the counter with her one good arm. As soon as she moved she felt a horrible wave of nausea and dizziness come over her, she thought she was going to black out, but somehow she managed to hold onto consciousness .It's all because of the pain she told herself.

Once she was standing, or rather more leaning precariously against the counter she thought about pain killers- it was odd really she was in so much pain but she didn't realise that she was in pain as such, however the adrenaline was wearing off and she was becoming more and more aware of the pain every second.

She slowly but surely toddled towards the medicine cabinet, being very clumsy. She reached it and opened it up, amongst the various cough and cold medicines, plasters and other drugs long since forgotten about -she found what she was looking for- the extra strong painkillers she had left over from her last "accident". She opened the packet and popped out two pills, then she stopped and thought for a second, before popping out a further two and gulping them down without any water.

It was then that she realised how thirsty she was, she went up to the tap and didn't bother getting a glass as she couldn't even reach into the cupboard, she just slowly bent down, in extreme pain and drank the water straight from the tap.

One she had drunk about 2 litres of water; she stood back up and turned the tap off. She turned around and surveyed the kitchen, there were broken things around but what really caught her attention was the now dry pool of blood- there was a lot of it and she just couldn't believe how bad it had been, she winced as she recalled his shoe coming towards her face. She just couldn't believe it. She just couldn't believe him.

She was distracted from her reminiscing by the horrible feeling of warm liquid running down the back of her neck, she felt her head and realised that it was now bleeding a lot more, moving must have interrupted the clot. She grabbed a clean tea towel and pressed it to the wound using her good arm, it hurt at first but then it helped to sooth the pain. After a further 5 minutes she decided to go and lie on the sofa while she tried to stop the bleeding. At the back of her mind all she could think of was the horrible ordeal she was going to have to go through with her shoulder, it wasn't the first time she had found herself in this predicament, and the memory of the last time still brought tears to her eye and fear to the forefront of her mind whenever it re-surfaced.

She slowly staggered towards the sofa and gently lowered herself down, propping herself on pillows to keep her head above her heart, she laid down, pressing firmly onto the tea towel, willing the blood to hurry up and clot so she could sort her other injuries out.


	4. Chapter 4

2 hours had passed since Kirsty had laid down on the sofa, and she was now looking almost human again ,even if she wasn't quite feeling that way. She had gone through the painful process of fixing her shoulder, which had thankfully been quite simple as she had done it before and so the tendons and ligaments were looser- leading to a more successful relocation .She had just used an old trick that an old friend with Hypermobility had told her, dose up on painkillers and then hold onto a closed doors handle and keep pulling away. With a satisfying pop it was fixed, and she was surprised by how little it had hurt, those painkillers must be good she thought, and she felt incredibly relieved that it was done.

She had been in the shower and realised, with great delight that although ideally the cut on the back of her head needed stitches it wasn't as bad as she had feared. Although the bruises on her abdomen were worse than she had thought and she had a huge bump on the top of her head.

She wasn't in that much pain anymore due to the painkillers and the adrenaline she felt whenever she thought she heard a movement from her bedroom, where Warren was. She thought that she was fine and she was putting all of the other thoughts, like how she may have internal bleeding-to the back of he mind.

So she focused on getting ready for work and she covered her most visible bruises up with makeup and got changed. She had even tidied the kitchen the best that she could, but bending down and things weren't that easy.

It was a ridiculous situation, she just couldn't think about it, just had to act as though it was like any other day, which unfortunately for her, it actually , and deceit were parts of her everyday life.

It was now 8:00am and she was due in for a shift at 9:00am. It only took her a few minutes to drive -but this morning she felt like walking to get some fresh air , her painkillers were doing wonders and her abnormally high pain threshold allowed her to do things like brisk walking and tidying, when others with her injuries would be lying in hospital dosed up on morphine .

She only had 10 minutes to get ready and apply the finishing touches to her make-up.

She heard someone coming down stairs and assumed it was Nita, so she turned towards the bottom of the stairs and put on her best I'm fine smile. But then Warren appeared.

"Where do you think your goin?" He asked her menacingly, almost upset that she looked better now.

"I'm off to work honey" she answered trying to be nice and keep things peaceful.

"No you're not" he replied, walking towards her with an evil look in his eye that made Kirsty drop eye contact.

"Yes I am, I have a shift today" Kirsty replied, trying to stay calm.

"No, you're not going anywhere" Warren replied, correcting her like she was stupid.

"But, I've got to I've had loads of time off and Tess is after my blood" Kirsty reasoned, for once actually telling the truth, Tess had obviously been getting quite frustrated by Kirsty's low attendance rate and frequent lateness.

"I'm sure she'll understand" Warren replied, clearly getting angry about her arguing back and walking ever closer.

"No, she won't believe that I've got flu again Warren, it would be the 4th time in 6 weeks." Kirsty replied, sensing that she had lost the argument.

"I said you're not going in today, unless you want a repeat of last night" Warren replied with a grin, enjoying the power he had over her.

"It's my life" she hissed angrily.

"No its not" he said as he gripped her shoulder, knowing exactly how to hurt her.

"Ahhh Warren, Nita" Kirsty said.

"Doesn't matter, she's not even here you cow, what kind of mother are you that you don't even know where your own daughter is? Warren said, doing his specialty, mind games.

"Ok! Ill phone" Kirsty said, fearing that if Nita wasn't there it would happen again, and although she was slowly getting depressed and losing any interest in her own personal safety, she knew it would kill her to have another beating. And she didn't want Nita to be left alone with him, or go through the ordeal of seeing her dead, on the kitchen floor surrounded by her own blood.

"Here you go" Warren said as he handed her back her mobile that he had confiscated from her possession while she was unconscious the night previous.

Kirsty reluctantly took her mobile and gave Warren an incredibly dirty look, which he just replied to with a sarcastic, almost psychotic smile that was dripping with anger, menace and hate.

Kirsty selected the ED's number from her contacts and called it.

"Speakerphone" Warren said.

Kirsty obediently put it on speakerphone; she could tell from the tone of his voice that he wasn't messing around.

"Hello, Holby city emergency department" came Noel's unmistakably chipper voice at the end of the phone

"Oh, Noel it's erm Kirsty, erm I'm afraid I can come in today...I don't feel very well" Kirsty explained, adding the last bit because Warren had yet again gripped her shoulder to show her who was boss,

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that Kirsty" came Noels sympathetic response, but before he could say anything else he was interrupted by someone.

"Is that Kirsty?" A voice in the distance asked in a voice that Kirsty recognised as being Tess'.

"Erm yes" Noel could be heard to reply.

"Let me speak to her for a moment please" Tess said in her usual brisk business like way.

"Sure" Noel replied

"Kirsty, I'm just passing you over to Tess as she would like a word" Noel said before handing the phone to Tess.

"Kirsty?" Tess said

"Ye, its me Tess, sorry but I can't come in today" Kirsty replied, clearly uncomfortable with the situation.

"Oh, Kirsty not today I'm 3 nurses down and its one of the busiest days of the year!" Tess almost moaned, clearly frustrated.

"I'm really sorry Tess" Kirsty honestly apologised; she really did feel for her boss at times.

"What's wrong anyway?"Tess asked, trying to hide it ,but a little caringly.

"I just feel crap, I think I'm coming down with something" Kirsty lied very unconvincingly.

"Again?" Tess questioned suspiciously

"Yes, I'm afraid so" Kirsty said, fearing she had been found out.

"Kirsty, I've had enough of this- you are repeatedly off, I'm sorry I really didn't want to have to do this but I think I'm going to have to take action with senior management, and I'll be recommending that you are dismissed" Tess said before uncharacteristically losing it and slamming the phone down.

Kirsty just looked at the phone, unable to believe what she had just heard.


	5. Chapter 5

"Warren, I've got to go in and sort this out" Kirsty said after an around 10 second pause.

"No, why? They obviously don't want you, they don't care about you" Warren said, ecstatic that his dream of stopping her working had happened, now he could see her all the time, there would be no more "funny business".

"I'm going ,bye" Kirsty said as she ran towards the door, despite her state still too fast for the crippled man to follow.

Running down the front steps Kirsty couldn't believe what she had just done, one thing was for sure and that was that she was going to pay for that. Quickly she frisked herself for her car keys and with horror realised that she had left them inside. Trying to forget about the sharp shooting pains she had all over her body she started to walk briskly towards work. It was 8:25; if she hurried she might make it on time, or at least not be too late.

Warren was furious, he couldn't believe the lack of respect that she had shown, using his disability against him, and now she was running off to be with Adam. In a sudden fit of rage he picked up the kettle and threw it as hard as he could at the wall, where it consequently shattered and smashing into numerous pieces.

Kirsty had been walking flat out for 30 minutes and she was now just over a minute away from the department, she was in considerable pain and in her haste to leave she had forgotten to bring any painkillers, and the last dose was beginning to wear off. She was feeling a little dizzy and she was a little uncoordinated with her clumsy movements but she just put that down to panic or a reaction to the pain.

Walking towards the entrance Kirsty began to really panic , she could feel her heart beat through her chest and she could barely breath, she just hoped that her ED team family weren't about to disown her, much the same as her biological one did.

She pushed open the door and walked into the corridor which she was now incredibly familiar with, with the hustle and bustle of people and trolleys. She felt safe and began to relax, after all, whatever happened here, it couldn't be as bad as what happened last night.

As she walked towards reception she realised that she was getting some funny looks, it was then that she worked out that she must look to be in a terrible state.

Despite this she continued to walk towards Noel at the reception and she saw Tess standing far over the other side.

Tess saw her as well and she was mightily relieved to see her, although at the same time she was angry, because if she was here now then that must have meant that she really wasn't ill- which was a massive disappointment for Tess as she thought Kirsty was one of the best nurses she had ever had the privilege of working with, and to know that she was neglecting her duties was hugely upsetting.

Kirsty took a deep breath, well as deep a breath as you could when you have sore ribs and began walking towards Tess, thinking time to face my fate.

Tess saw her coming and stood there, waiting and just thinking about what a shame it was that Kirsty didn't care anymore. But the closer Kirsty got the more Tess' disappointment decreased, Kirsty really was in a state, she looked pale and clammy and was obviously not well- and the closer she got to Tess, the more concerned and guilty Tess felt. To the point that for the last 2 meters she practically ran towards Kirsty to hold her arm and look at her.

Tess couldn't believe what she saw, the usually vibrant woman was stood in front of her as an exhausted wreck, she was unbelievably pale and she was hardly recognisable.

By the time Kirsty had reached Tess she felt awful, the long walk to work and the panicking had really taken its toll, she felt dizzy and she feared she might be about to pass out again.

Being an experienced nurse, Tess knew when someone was sick and this was definitely one of those times.

"Kirsty?" Tess asked in her mothering tone, holding her arm to steady her.

The way that Kirsty did not reply, looked disoriented and seemed to struggle to make eye contact told Tess that she was on the verge of fainting, so panicking; she gently guided her towards some chairs, before sitting her down.

Tess was silent, she just watched Kirsty take deep breaths and slowly some colour returned to her cheeks.

Slowly what had just happened registered in Kirsty brain she had nearly passed out in front of Tess, now she was going to know something was wrong.

"Are you feeling a little better?" Tess asked soothingly, stroking her back.

"Yes thank you" Kirsty replied weakly, mostly from horror and embarrassment.

"What's wrong?" Tess asked caringly, obviously very concerned.

"N-no-nothing" Kirsty lied weakly.

"Kirsty, I know you think I'm stupid, but I know when I'm being lied too" Tess prompted kindly

"Really, it's nothing "Kirsty insisted "I'm meant to be working" she added, keen to get out of this situation.

"That doesn't matter now, come on" she said kindly while watching her like hawk for any other symptoms.

"I can tell your unwell" Tess stated, and when Kirsty didn't reply she asked "what's wrong?", expecting it to be something like food poisoning.

"Nothing, I just banged my head that's all" Kirsty admitted, starting to feel dizzy again.

"Oh" Tess said, really worried- she knew the dangers of head injuries.

"mmm" was all Kirsty could manage.

Sensing that Kirsty was very unwell Tess said, "we need to get you checked out, come on" as she motioned towards the cubicles.

"Really Tess I don't need to" Kirsty said really not wanting the fuss.

"Who's in charge Kirsty?" Tess said, sounding a little meaner that she had intended.

"Fine" Kirsty said, beaten, she didn't feel well enough to argue anymore.

"Ok, do you feel well enough to walk?"Tess asked

"Of course I can, I'm not an invalid" Kirsty snapped, annoyed at all the fuss.

"Sorry" she apologised quietly.

"It's ok" Tess replied "I understand"

But she didn't.

"Come on then let's get you sorted" Tess said, offering Kirsty a hand up.

Kirsty groaned as she slowly stood up, "are you sure your ok?" Tess asked her face full of worry.

But before Kirsty could reply she felt blood tickling her upper lip. Her nose was bleeding.

Tess noticed and looked at Kirsty; they both knew what this could mean.

But before Kirsty could say anything else, she felt funny and lost control over her limbs, before she knew it darkness had closed in.

"Kirsty!" Tess exclaimed as the young nurse fell to the ground, and then to Tess' horror began convulsing.

She was fitting.

"Can I get some help over here please!"Tess shouted, trying to prevent Kirsty from banging her head again.

Just as she said it Adam came through the front doors, ready to start his shift.

"Kirsty?" he questioned as he saw her fitting on the floor, the fear and shock evident in his voice, his world spinning.


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey, I am really really sorry about not being able to update ,but I've been completely snowed under with my schoolwork, its only a short one but i hope you enjoy it!- as always, please review.**

Quickly, he pulled himself together and began sprinting towards her, looking at her terrified him, she was deathly pale, and her lips were turning blue.

Quite a crowd had gathered around, but Adam was oblivious to them as he scooped her up in his arms, and quickly followed by Tess he ran with her towards resus.

"Get out of the way!" he shouted as he struggled to get through the crowd.

Banging the resus doors open he ran in, much to the surprise of a shocked Mr. Jordan and Zoe who had been doing the mundane task of a stock take of everything in resus.

The sight they saw was a strange one, Adam, clearly terrified, holding a fitting Kirsty, who looked as different from how she normally did as possible, she was just jerking in his arms, pale, and her head just hanging limply over the side of his forearm.

"What the..." Zoe started before realising this was no time for questions and hurriedly running over to the bed Adam had just put her down on, her high heels banging and echoing around the relatively small room.

By the time Tess, Adam, Zoe and Mr. Jordan were all surrounding her she had stopped fitting, but to everyone's horror she was not regaining consciousness.

Within 2 minutes they had, in a fine display of professionalism attached her to various machines, and had managed to get her stable. She laid there with various wires attached, and an oxygen mask on.

While Zoe and Mr. Jordan were discussing whether or not she needed intubating, tess was working out Kristy's GCS.

"Kirsty, can you hear me Kirsty? If you can could you open your eyes for me, Kirsty?" Tess asked- desperate for a response.

Everyone watched in silence as she groaned and her eyes flickered open.

All that could be heard after the hopeful, tense silence was everyone letting out a breath of air, which they had been holding for the minute previous, and Adam, gasping "thank god".

"mmmmwohfw" Kirsty managed, grimacing in pain, but before anyone could say anything her eyelids fluttered, and yet again she was unconscious.

Although the team were worried, they thought that she must have just passed out from the exhaustion after all having a seizure was more tiring than running a marathon.

For the time being Kirsty was stable, the team were happy with her SATS but they were very worried- after all seizures don't just happen for any old reason.

Mr Jordan had been calling in many favours, with various surgeons and was getting them all on standby.

They started to look for the cause, the injury that must have caused it.

Luckily nobody had had the nerve to actually come in and see what was happening- but everyone in the department knew that something was going on and although there had been quite a scene in the waiting room earlier, nobody was interfering or being nosey but there were a few worried faces n the people that made up the small crowd stood outside resus.

Mr. Jordan, although worried and confused about Kirsty saw this, and he quickly strode towards them, poking his head out of the door, he said "hello- could everybody please get back to work, this IS an emergency department after all, thank you" In his typical powerful manner, causing all of the nurses to scuttle away.

He then started walking back towards the patient, and got back just in time to see Tess cutting at Kristy's scrubs top, and the horrors that lie beneath.

**Please Review!**


	7. Chapter 7

She peeled back the cheap material to reveal a camouflage of bruising, ranging in colour from the faint yellow, to the deep maroon colour that seemed to be the most prominent.

It was disgusting.

Nobody even acknowledged it, nobody dared to say anything, and just all looked and thought their own dark, sinister thoughts.

Adam, who had been stood at the edge of the bed, unsure of what to do with himself, paled significantly as he saw this, and turned around, his hands on his head, letting out a pained sigh and trying to blink back the tears that had come to his eyes. The next emotion he felt was pure anger- he had a pretty good idea of what had happened. Warren. He didn't know what to do, anger was pumping through him but he couldn't leave Kirsty, however much he wanted to beat Warren to a pulp.

"Ok then, we'd better get on to theatre, there's bound to be some sort of internal bleeding here somewhere..." Mr. Jordan said as he began to feel her abdomen, hardly daring to touch as he didn't want to cause her any more pain.

"There are a couple of cracked ribs here" Mr Jordan said, informing everyone of something they already knew.

"Theatre is on standby, their sending someone down in a minute to assess her" Tess said, returning from her errand, looking down at Kirsty with fresh pity in her eyes. How could she have let this happen, what had happened?

Luckily over the next 5 minutes things began to improve, Kirsty stabilised and her O² levels had improved so much they no longer needed to intubate.

However they had begun to survey her injuries and found a massive array of them, varying in age and severity. They were certain that whatever- or most likely whoever had caused this had intended to do so, this had been no accident.

They were not focusing on that though, much as they wanted to find out exactly what had happened they had to focus on the here and now- she had obviously suffered numerous head injuries with the huge bump they had uncovered under her fringe, an almost fully healed laceration just above her hairline and the gash from that morning, which had reopened due to the fit.

Tess had told them how Kirsty had said she had been ill due to a head injury and that along with the obvious dizziness, nosebleed, fitting and now unconsciousness were certain that they were the priority. It was serious.

Big Mac was called in to wheel her for a CT scan, which Tess and Adam accompanied her to.

Left alone in Resus, as it was luckily quite a quiet day, the sudden wave of horror washed over Zoe and Nick, they couldn't believe what had happened, and all of the questions they had pushed to the back of their minds came back to the forefront.

"Jesus, what's been happening to her?" Zoe said, being the first to dare to say it. She knew Kirsty quite well, wouldn't say that they were best friends but that was just because they didn't have any real interaction out of work, she was a very capable nurse and seemed to be a lovely person.

"Some definite foul play" Nick said with a sigh, she was part of the ED, he should have had noticed and protected her, she was a member of his team. He just hoped she would pull through and that they got the lowlife responsible.

"Well I'd better get onto the Police" he added; surprised it had not yet been done-"page me with her results" he said, before walking out briskly, leaving the Resus doors swinging long after he had left and scowling at the gaggle of staff gossiping on the way; leaving a stressed Zoe in Resus, unsure of what to do . After a moment of internal deliberation she followed the same path Nick had, but instead going to reception to find a patient to take her mind off everything.


	8. Chapter 8

Apart from waking partially only for a few moments to vomit, Kirsty remained in an unconscious state on the way up to, during and even the way back from the CT scan- which had it's benefits in regard to the fact that didn't have to suffer, but was also intensely worrying. The results from the CT scan weren't entirely conclusive, and so it was decided that an MRI scan was also needed.

The whole process was very stressful for everyone, especially Tess and Adam who were with her all the way, constantly expecting to have to jump into action if she crashed, which seemed to be only a matter of time away from happening.

Somehow she managed to remain relatively stable, apart from a slight dip in her oxygen levels, and she was back in Resus having her results examined by Adam (who had been given this job to make him feel as if he were helping and to keep busy), relatively was sat with Kirsty, stroking her hand and keeping a very careful eye on her vitals when Zoe returned, silently she took a prolonged look at Kirsty, pity and sympathy clear in her eyes, before glancing at her vitals. Seemingly satisfied by what she saw, she then went to look at the results with Adam.

He was so focused that he hadn't even noticed Zoe coming in, and when she placed a comforting hand upon his shoulder he almost jumped out of his skin.

"Sorry" she gasped, snatching her hand back like you would from a vicious dog, it seemed that her subconscious was remembering the state he had been in after Jessica's accident, and she knew how close Adam and Kirsty were- she just found him unpredictable ; but immediately felt guilty when she saw the hurt clear in Adams eyes due to her recoiling.

He just couldn't believe that he could have that effect, the effect Warren had, on another person and it immediately made him realise that this was his fault, he was as bad as Warren.

He had known what was going on, deep down he had known exactly what the situation was, but he hadn't done anything to help.

He should have helped.

Zoe sensed this internal conflict, it was written all over his face.

"You cant blame yourself you know, this was just a freak, one off thing, no-one could have seen this coming, it could have happened to anyone." She told him, trying to calm him, but it had the opposite effect.

"WHAT DO YOU KNOW?, I COULD HAVE STOPPED THIS- I KNEW IT WOULD HAPPEN!" He shouted, intimidating Zoe, who could now see that he was no danger to anyone but himself at this point.

"What do you mean?" she asked- confused by the fact he seemed to be telling the truth, but surely that was impossible.

"Look at these results" he said showing her, multiple old rib, wrist and skull fractures were visible to the trained eye, causing Zoe to take in a sharp breath, surely that could mean only one thing.

"Warren, her HUSBAND did it! He has been doing it for years, I knew but I didn't do anything to stop it!" He said, tears coming to his eyes, his confession confirming Zoe's theory.

However she didn't dwell on it, instead she realised that her results needed to be studied as soon as possible and so said "let's just concentrate on making her better, we can think about that later on- what matters most now is making sure she makes it"

This had a very positive effect also on Adam, who seemed to snap out of his rage and for the next few minutes he and Zoe studied the results in a calm manner, identifying what needed to be done and what concerns there were.

Luckily it seemed she had been incredibly lucky, when the surgeon had been, he had agreed that there was some internal bleeding in her abdomen-which was then confirmed by the scan results, but it didn't take priority, it didn't seem to be causing any catastrophic issues at that moment in time and she wasn't stable enough to go into surgery when she might not even need it- hopefully it would resolve itself. However her head injury was still incredibly worrying, it was already clear that it was a traumatic brain injury, and the CT had shown a hairline fracture of the skull, which just showed them the sheer force of the injury, and the numerous head injuries showed that the effect on her brain must have been catastrophic. Amazingly the CT scan had also shown that there wasn't that much swelling, although it showed the brain had obviously been damaged, and there was a certain degree of intracranial pressure, but none of her injuries seemed to be immediately life threatening. As both Zoe and Adam stared in disbelief at how lucky Kirsty had been, there contemplation was interrupted by the beeping of machines and Tess' frantic cries for "some help here please"...


End file.
